Category Archives: Honesty

“…Jesus…said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick…for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” -Mathew 9:12,13

Back when I was a kid, I loved to watch baseball. I loved to watch the best players in the world throw 100 mph fastballs, or hit 100 mph fastballs, or crank out 4 home runs in one game. Every once in a while, we even got to see an all out brawl because of a well placed pitch right between the batters shoulder blades in retaliation for some perceived slight an inning or two earlier. …Ahhh, the good ‘ole days….

One of the most entertaining players to watch was a guy named Bo Jackson. Now, Bo only played a few seasons, but was one of the best athletes to ever play. He was an All-Star outfielder for the Kansas City Royals, way before the Royals were cool. Or even remotely good. He also starred as a running back for the Oakland Raiders. He bounced back and forth between professional sports like it was no big deal. He was iconic. And, maybe the best part of all, he had his own cross training shoes that, quite possibly, could be the best shoes ever created in the 90’s.

Bo was famous for his home runs….and his strikeouts. He looked a lot like Dwayne “the Roc” Johnson at the bat if you can imagine. Or like Disney’s Moana playing baseball. He was huge, ripped, shredded, swole, or buff as you might say. Even though he never lifted weights in his life.

He was a good hitter, but he did strike out more than average. He didn’t particularly like striking out, as you can imagine. It frustrated him. It tended to make him angry. We were able to deduce this fact because he would often, after striking out, break his bat over his knee, or his head, on his way back to the dugout. He had a little bit of a mean streak in him. But, his anger management issues, were fun to watch, because snapping a bat over your head, and making that piece of pine look more like a toothpick was totally awesome.

So what does Bo Jackson’s anger issues have anything to do with anything? Well, maybe nothing, but it came to mind this week as I read through a particular chapter in the Book of Mormon. Last Sunday, because of a new calling, I got to sit in a lesson in the Deacons quorum in my ward. The lesson was on the reality of all of us having real problems, and how we all have flaws, and we will make mistakes, and how we have to pick ourselves up and go to the Lord, and make ourselves better because of it. It was awesome.

The chapter that we talked about was 2 Nephi chapter 4. This is one of the best chapters ever. In this chapter, Nephi talks about how even he, Nephi got down on himself because of his sins. This is the same guy that never complained about anything, the same guy that made a homemade bow, probably out of sharp rocks, animal sinew, and leftover crow feathers while in the wilderness. Only to then have to fashion his own arrows, even when everyone else, including his prophet father, Lehi, was complaining directly to the Lord about thier sufferings. This was the same Nephi that was willing to make a boat to cross an unfamiliar ocean simply on faith. This same, seemingly flawless Nephi, admits he had struggles with temptations, and sin. He was a normal guy after all!

He explains his thoughts in verses 17-19,

“O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities….I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins…”

Don’t get me wrong, Nephi was one of the most faithful men to ever live on this earth. But it is nice to know that he, just like us, wasn’t perfect. He had struggled to overcome sin. He quickly though, reminds himself, and us by proxy, that there is no reason to dwell on the struggles. And, that remembering the greatness of God, and His ability to lift us out of sin, is our real key to happiness.

He says in verses 20 and 21…

“My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh”

He continues in verse 26…

“O then, if I have seen so great things…why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow…?”

Then, and this is the new part that stood out to me yesterday for the first time, Nephi gives us this little glimpse into one of the things he may have struggled with. He explains in verse 27…

“And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?”

and again in verse 29…

“Do not anger again because of mine enemies…”

I think we have to look at Nephi’s life as a whole, and wonder how in the world he did it. He continued to be faithful through thick and thin, trial after trial, living on the edge of life threatening situations every single day. He maintained his faithfullness even when his older brothers, Laman and Lemuel, tried at every possible moment in time, to make his life completely miserable. They beat him, tied him up several times, mocked him, complained about him, demeaned him, and ultimately tried to kill him. Multiple times. Nephi and his family and others literally had to up and get out of dodge to avoid being murdered by his own brothers. If anyone had the right or reason to be “angry” it would have been Nephi.

So, do I think Nephi had anger management issues? No, I don’t. I don’t think he went all “Bo Jackson” and broke his nice steel bow over his knee after a missed shot at a giant 8
point buck somewhere in the wilderness. It just doesn’t fit. But, I do think he was subject to being a normal human, and having normal human responses to living continuously under the threat of being killed, beaten, mocked, and ridiculed. Some people, unfortunately in this world can relate to that.

And that is the beauty of the scriptures, and of the gospel. Its a real life thing. The stories and principles that we read about in the pages of the Book of Mormon apply to us. Even if the prophets in those stories have flaws and struggle. We all have flaws, and we all struggle. Thats kind of the point. If Nephi struggled with the temptation to be angry, given his circumstances, then its also ok if I struggle sometimes with the same thing.

We all have our things that we need to overcome. Nephi, in this same amazing chapter, finishes it off with his advise on how to recover from those sins, and temptations…

He teaches us in verse 34…

“O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh”

Then finishes in verse 35..

“Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I asknot amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.”

Nephi, no matter his temptations and sins, looked up to God, and trusted in him. Its as simple as that. Our struggles, our problems, are real. Its simply a part of life. And that’s ok. That is where the beauty of the gospel and the atonement of Christ takes over. Nephi showed us how he did it. He survived by handing everything over to the Lord.

We are all broken or “sick” in some way. Even those who may seem to have it all together, like Nephi. But, lucky for us, the Lord can fix anything. He can heal us no matter how sick we are. He is the great Physician. The more housecalls he makes in our behalf, the better we get to know him, love him, and really appreciate what he does to heal us. And when we allow ourselves to be healed by him, we are changed. And that is how the atonement really works. Maybe we can stop looking at our temptations and sins as weights, and see them more as oppurtunities to be healed by the Great Physician.

Like this:

Soccer and basketball are both non-contact sports. At least they are supposed to be. Fouls are called if excessive physical contact occurs during the normal flow of the game. These “fouls” are judged by referees that are there to keep a close eye on the game and determine where the line is between good defense, and excessive force. They are supposed to call the game fairly and truthfully.

Not all players are gifted super athletes that dominate the competition. I should know because I wasn’t a gifted super-athlete. I played basketball in high school, but no one ever accused me of being a superstar. But, I was a master at a niche skill that often times went unheralded. It was the skill of drawing fouls. I was also really good at fouling others. I fouled out in approximately 75% of the games I played in. I had 5 fouls to give, so why waste them, right?

One of my favorite things to do in basketball was taking charges. It usually consisted of me, a smaller player, positioning myself somewhere directly in the path of a much bigger, heavier player who was driving the ball with a full head of steam. The ensuing collision would usually, due to physics, consist of me flying uncontrollably backwards landing violently on the hardwood, with my arms flying, head whiplashing in a human explosion like manner. Sheer sympathy from the referees would almost certainly result in the call of an offensive foul on the bigger stronger guy. Mission accomplished. It didn’t take much skill, just a lot of courage and determination, and ibuprofen afterward.

It worked for me. But, just like a lot of things in this life, there are alter egos, or villains for each superhero. The opposite of a true “charge” or “offensive foul” is the flop. A flop is where the defender pretends, or acts like he took the charge or offensive foul when, in actuality, no harm, or contact even remotely proportionate to the subsequent physical reaction actually occurred. This is where truth gets imitated and falsely represented.

One of the best floppers of all time.

It happens all the time in soccer as well. Watch any soccer game, and you’ll see at least a dozen guys go down on the ground holding their legs, or head, sprawling around like someone just stabbed them 75 times, or that they just got run over by a train or swallowed a grenade, only to hop up, and run off just like nothing happened 4 seconds later when no foul was called. No one likes a flopper. No one.

Rare photo of Laman, Lemuel, and Giddianhi all playing on the same soccer team.

A few days ago, I was reading and I realized something. The “flop” had its origins much earlier than I had realized. It came into existence even before John Naismith invented basketball, or whoever invented soccer was kicking some round rock through a fishing net somewhere. It may have started somewhere around 600 B.C., with two guys named Laman and Lemuel.

These guys were commanded by God to leave Jerusalem with their family in order to avoid utter destruction. Somehow, these two guys found a way to complain about it. And they continued to complain about it for the rest of their lives. Not only that, but they lied and claimed they had been robbed of their rightful place in the family hierarchy by their younger brother Nephi. They chose to leave out the fact that is was their own wickedness that had determined who the leader would be. These lies, or flops, weren’t called as offensive fouls. They were cowardly actors, just looking for a freebie from the ref. They also seemingly passed on the “flopping” skill to their children, because over the next 1000 years, this initial lie was repeated over, and over, and over again.

As the years went by, the art of the flop was passed on, and perfected until the true master of the flop was born. We learn about him in 3rd Nephi. His name was Giddianhi. He was the leader of the Gadianton robbers. He wrote a letter to Lachoneus, the governor of the Nephite lands, to demand his immediate surrender in the most epic “flop” of an epistle ever written.

First, he threatened Lachoneus with utter destruction, because of the robbers “hatred towards you because of the many wrongs which ye have done unto them“. This was the bogus foul. He then continued to flop in dramatic flair by adding “I am Giddianhi; and I am the governor of this the secret society of Gadianton; which society and the works thereof I know to be good” He didn’t even stop there. He then rolled around on the ground holding his head and demanded that Lachoneus give up his lands, “that this my people may recover their rights and government, who have dissented away from you because of your wickedness“, and with another final twitch, “I will avenge their wrongs. I am Giddianhi.”

Giddianhi was the master flopper. He had demanded a charge, when the Nephites hadn’t even touched him. They weren’t even in the same game. He didn’t get the call. Not even close. He soon fouled out, permanently, by being captured in battle, and hanged.

Coach Satan encourages this flopping. He’s a liar. He’s dishonest. He teaches it on the first day of practice. He taught it to Laman and Lemuel and to Giddianhi. He preaches the doctrine of victimhood, and false representations. The big problem with that mentality, is that is tends to be perpetuated to everyone else around. The lie is repeated until even the liar believes it.

Satan will take something that is good and worthy, and re-release it, repackaged as something that looks similar, but is exactly the opposite. This is the difference between taking a charge and a flop. It’s always easier to be a victim, not to work hard, and expect the world, But we have to be honest. We can’t allow ourselves to always take the easy way, or flop. We have to be willing to do things the right way, and stand in the way of the speeding opposition, and plant our feet. There will be collisions. But, if we work hard, stand tall, and have courage, we will get the call. Its not easy, and it may hurt, but it is worth it. Because, in the end, truth always wins.